Wage rigidity and unemployment: a comment on kohn

Vol. 12 No. 2 (1992)

Apr-Jun / 1992
Published April 1, 1992
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Amadeo, Edward J., and Amitava Khrishna Dutt. 1992. “Wage Rigidity and Unemployment: A Comment on Kohn”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 12 (2):287-95. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31571992-0663.

Wage rigidity and unemployment: a comment on kohn

Edward J. Amadeo
Da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil.
Amitava Khrishna Dutt
Da University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame/IN, Estados Unidos.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 12 No. 2 (1992), Apr-Jun / 1992, Pages 287-295

Abstract

This paper examines loanable fund models with a stabilized interest rate, in which the banking system bridges the gap between the flow of demand and the provision of funds. A typical Mickselian model is developed to emphasize the importance of credit and inflation (deflation) in closing the gap between savings and investment. Substituting the nominal interest rate for the real – an appropriate modification in a model whose inflation is relevant – and using the Robertsonian definition of income, we realize that, depending on the reaction of ‘lacking’ and investment to inflation, there is the possibility of the system become unstable. By introducing unemployment into the system, we realize that investment is more sensitive than the lack of inflation, the greater the degree of wage flexibility, the greater the level of unemployment balance, in the face of the demand shock, and the greater the chances of macroeconomic instability. Finally, we demonstrate that if we replace the Robertsonian definition of income with Keynesian, investment becomes more sensitive to inflation, making wage rigidity necessarily a good deal.

JEL Classification: E12; E24.


Keywords: Wage rigidity unemployment macroeconomic equilibrium